(Circa 200 A. D.) --Greek philosopher

When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another."

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;... that laws were like cobwebs, --for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."

He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.

He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.

Time is the image of eternity.

Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."

The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man."

"Bury me on my face," said Diogenes; and when he was asked why, he replied, "Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down."

All things are in common among friends.

I am a citizen of the world.

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

Nothing can be produced out of nothing.

Walt Disney

(1901-1966) -American animated film producer, amusement park creator

If you can dream it, you can do it.

Benjamin Disraeli

(1804-1881) --English politician and author

Never complain and never explain.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men.

Sir, I say that justice is truth in action. - from a speech in House of Commons, February 11, 1851

What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.

He is a self-made man, very much in love with his creator.

Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

In a progressive country change is constant, change is inevitable. - from a speech on the Reform Bill of 1867, Edinburgh, October 29, 1867

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future. - from Coningsby, 1844

We live in an age when to be young and indifferent can no longer be synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity. - from Sybil, 1845

Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

Mike Ditka

--American professional football coach

You never really lose until you quit trying.

Charles Divine

I wonder who is haunting the little snug cafe,

That place, half restaurant and home,

since we have gone away;

The candled dimness, smoke and talk,

and tables brown and bare --

But no one thinks of tablecloths when

love and laughter's there...

Where hearts were high and fortunes

low, and onions in the stew.

(At the Lavander Lantern)

W. MacNeile Dixon

Our desires attract supporting reasons as a magnet the iron fillings

Lames Frank Dobie

(1888-1964) --American folklorist

Conform and be dull.

Dogen

An ancient Buddha said "mountains are mountains; waters are waters." These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.

John Donne

(1572-1631) --English poet

No man is an Island, entire of it self;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. (from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions [1624])

Love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.

Thomas Aloysius Dorgan

Life is like eating artichokes, you have got to go through so much to get so little.

Michael Dorris

They say that after a brush with death the world looks different and that was true for me, but by the time I caught my breath, I realized that it was because I had lost my glasses. - from The Broken Cord

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821-1881) --Russian novelist

The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on Earth.

Alexander Douglas-Home

There are two problems in my life: the political ones are insoluble and the economic ones are incomprehensible.

Helen Douglas

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains.

Rita Dove

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

Arthur Conan Doyle

(1858-1930) --British writer, physician, creator of Sherlock Holmes

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to need, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

There comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.

When you have eliminated the impossible, that which remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

William Drayton

Change starts when someone sees the next step.

Peter Drucker

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.

Jon Dryden

(1631-1700) --English Poet

Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are.

A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

John Drylan

And virtue, though in rags, will keep you warm.

Fr. Alfred D'Souza

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin--real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

W.E.B.Dubois

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

Charles H. Duell

--Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

Everything that can be invented has been invented.

Isadora Duncan

(1878-1927) --American dancer

Dancing: The Highest Intelligence in the Freest Body.

Will Durant

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing the things historians usually record -- while, on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks.

Tired mothers takes less time than reasoning and penetrates sooner to the seat of the memory.

Bob Dylan

--American singer and songwrighter

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? (song lyric)